Troubled Political Transitions: A Perspective from Egypt

Ann Mosely Lesch ’66, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, American University in Cairo, will present the 2014 Islamic Studies Annual Lecture, “Troubled Political Transitions: A Perspective from Egypt”.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

4:30 pm,

Science Center Room 199

Swarthmore College

Three years ago, Egyptians rose up to remove Hosni Mubarak’s corrupt authoritarian regime. Since then, they have been on an emotional roller-coaster, from the excitement of participating in three elections, to rising anger during the Muslim Brotherhood’s presidency, and then taking back to the streets to remove that president.

Today, they face uncertainty as to whether presidential elections will strengthen democracy or entrench the security state. Given Egypt’s centrality in the Middle East, it is important to examine and assess its troubled transition.

Egypt_freedom

 

Sponsored by the Islamic Studies Program, Arabic Section of Modern Languages & Literatures, Department of Political Science, and the Department of Sociology & Anthropology.

Why is the Conflict So Intractable?: 20 Years of Crisis in the DR Congo

Why is the Conflict So Intractable?: 20 Years of Crisis in the DR Congo

A lecture by Prof. Laura Seay, Colby College

Wednesday, April 9th

4:30 PM

Science Center Room 199

Swarthmore College

Laura_Seay_ColbySTAND (formerly known as “Students Taking Action Now: Darfur,”) is bringing Laura Seay to discuss the conflict in the DR Congo. She will explain the dynamics of the conflict, which is the deadliest war since World War II, and propose possible advocacy options. Laura Seay is a professor of Political Science at Colby College and is one of the top American experts on Central Africa. She has written for the New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, and other prominent publications. Laura Seay has worked with the World Bank and is currently finishing a book called Substituting for the State.

Sponsored by the Political Science Department, the History Department, and Forum for Free Speech.

David Kennedy ’80 to speak on an applied ethics of crime control

“What if criminal justice had a Hippocratic Oath? Toward an applied ethics of crime control”

justice_oathDavid Kennedy ‘80

Director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City

April 14, 2014

2:00-3:30 p.m.

Science Center 199

Swarthmore College (directions)

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David M. Kennedy (Swarthmore class of 1980 and an honorary degree recipient in 2011) directed the Boston Gun Project, whose “Operation Ceasefire” intervention was responsible for a more than sixty per cent reduction in youth homicide victimization and won the Ford Foundation Innovations in Government award. He is the author of Don’t Shoot, One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America. Read more about David Kennedy.

Watch David Kennedy address the senior class of 2011 during the Commencement in which he received an honorary degree from the College:

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Sponsored by the Peace and Conflict Studies Program, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.

Lecture with Emily Wilcox (3/31 @ 4:30PM, Kohlberg 226)

LECTURE: “Dancing Against Euro-American Imperialism: Socialist Culture, Third World Leftism, and the Making of a Chinese Body”

When: Monday, March 31, 2014, 4:30-6:00pm

Where: Kohlberg 226

Emily Wilcox, PhD, will speak on the common misperception that dance in Mao-era China was dominated by the importation and adaptation of Soviet ballet. The lecture will include an examination of historical sources in corroboration with Chinese-language dance scholarship suggesting that China’s pre-Cultural Revolution socialist period (1949-1966) witnessed Chinese dance artists’ widespread efforts to create Chinese dance styles that would serve as alternatives to foreign dance forms.

Emily Wilcox is assistant professor of modern Chinese studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. She received her PhD in 2011 from the Anthropology Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her essays and articles have appeared in Asian Theatre Journal, Journal of the Anthropological Study of Human Movement, TDR: The Drama Review, and other venues. She is currently writing a book on dance and the construction of a national culture in the People’s Republic of China.

Lecture with Emily Wilcox (3/31 @ 4:30PM, Kohlberg 226)

LECTURE: “Dancing Against Euro-American Imperialism: Socialist Culture, Third World Leftism, and the Making of a Chinese Body”

When: Monday, March 31, 2014, 4:30-6:00pm

Where: Kohlberg 226

Emily Wilcox, PhD, will speak on the common misperception that dance in Mao-era China was dominated by the importation and adaptation of Soviet ballet. The lecture will include an examination of historical sources in corroboration with Chinese-language dance scholarship suggesting that China’s pre-Cultural Revolution socialist period (1949-1966) witnessed Chinese dance artists’ widespread efforts to create Chinese dance styles that would serve as alternatives to foreign dance forms.

Emily Wilcox is assistant professor of modern Chinese studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. She received her PhD in 2011 from the Anthropology Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her essays and articles have appeared in Asian Theatre Journal, Journal of the Anthropological Study of Human Movement, TDR: The Drama Review, and other venues. She is currently writing a book on dance and the construction of a national culture in the People’s Republic of China.

Tamagawa Taiko is back again for the Cherry Blossom Festival! (4/6 @7PM)

TaikoTama2014This event is FREE, but seating is first come, first served! Please arrive early to secure a seat.

The world-touring Tamagawa Taiko Drum and Dance troupe return to Philadelphia for a week of awe-inspiring performances as part of the 2014 Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Festival. This group is guaranteed to thrill and amaze with their energetic shows of Japanese folk tradition. Expect to see thundering drums, intricate dances, and beautiful costumes. It’ll be sure to be an evening of heart-pounding entertainment and fun for all!

When: April 6, 2014 at 7PM

Where: Lang Concert Hall, Swarthmore College

 

Tamagawa Taiko is back again for the Cherry Blossom Festival! (4/6 @7PM)

TaikoTama2014This event is FREE, but seating is first come, first served! Please arrive early to secure a seat.

The world-touring Tamagawa Taiko Drum and Dance troupe return to Philadelphia for a week of awe-inspiring performances as part of the 2014 Philadelphia Cherry Blossom Festival. This group is guaranteed to thrill and amaze with their energetic shows of Japanese folk tradition. Expect to see thundering drums, intricate dances, and beautiful costumes. It’ll be sure to be an evening of heart-pounding entertainment and fun for all!

When: April 6, 2014 at 7PM

Where: Lang Concert Hall, Swarthmore College

 

Using Class and Race Awareness to strengthen Social Action

Please be aware of this important upcoming workshop on “Using Class and Race Awareness to strengthen Social Action,” to be led at Pendle Hill by faculty and friends of our Peace and Conflict Studies program!

Invitation to Pendle Hill Workshop on Action Groups Moving Forward

George Lakey, Ingrid Lakey, and Sarah Willie-LeBreton will be leading a workshop at Pendle Hill entitled “Using Class and Race Awareness to strengthen Social Action,” beginning the evening of April 11 and concluding at noon on April 13, 2014.

We hope folks from Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges will participate in this workshop. Commuters pay $230 for the workshop which includes meals. (Students at Swarthmore College can apply for up to $50 to support workshop attendance, through a form on the LC website.)

Here is a link to the workshop description. http://pendlehill.org/workshops/spring-2014/939-using-class-and-race-awareness-to-strengthen-social-action

Commitment to the entire workshop is required.

Egypt’s Constitutional Quagmires: Pursuing Reform in Precarious Times

From our friends in the Arabic Section and Islamic Studies:

“Egypt’s Constitutional Quagmires: Pursuing Reform in Precarious Times.”

Tamer Nagy Mahmoud

Monday, March 31 at 4:30PM

Science Center 101

Swarthmore College

egypt_nasser_nouri_cc_1-2011

In this talk Tamer Nagy Mahmoud will discuss Egypt’s present crisis from the perspective of constitutional law. Tamer spent much of the last few years advising on the drafting of the Egyptian constitution. His talk will give insight into important legal, social, cultural, and religious debates in Egyptian society that were deliberated in the process of writing the constitution.

Tamer Nagy Mahmoud is an attorney at the international law firm of White & Case LLP in Washington, DC, focused on international disputes, competition law, and investment funds. For the past two years, he was on secondment in Egypt with the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), where he was advising civil society on constitutional and legislative reforms during the democratic transi tion.

Mr. Mahmoud is also a founding member of Sheraa – The Independent Association for Legal Support in Egypt – and a member of the Egyptian-American Rule of Law Association, a group of Egyptian-American attorneys in the United States providing counsel in the rule of law field to the legal community in Egypt. His previous experiences in legal reform include the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the American University of Washington.

Sponsored by the Arabic Section (Modern Languages) and Islamic Studies

 

Honors Directing Thesis: LEX & GOLDALINE: A MIRROR FUGUE IN THREE ACTS (4/11 – 4/13)

LEX&GOLDALINEposter2The Department of Theater at Swarthmore College presents an Honors Directing thesis, LEX & GOLDALINE: A MIRROR FUGUE IN THREE ACTS, conceived and directed by Swift Shuker.

A devised work, LEX & GOLDALINE, is at once a peaceful meditation on home and the creation of families, as well as a disorienting deconstruction of linear space and time. The theater is turned into a house, and each audience member follows one of two corridors into one of two rooms. They watch people live in this house, small and complex moments of love. Sometimes time goes forwards, sometimes backwards. Sometimes, time stops and expands and sings a song. Everyone sees the same show, just not in the same order. Everyone is in the same house, but the house is larger on the inside than on the outside. Throughout this dilation of spacetime, two sisters, Lex and Goldaline, discover sex.

LEX & GOLDALINE is a nonlinear, quiet, and ambitious exploration of intimacy, in its infinite complexity, and the limitless storytelling of the touch of another’s hand.

WHEN: April 11th at 7PM and 9PM
April 12th at 2PM, 7PM and 9PM
April 13th at 1PM and 3PM

Seating will be limited.  First come, first served.

LPAC Frear Ensemble Theater